A bride and groom react to Mitt Romney's entourage passing en route to a fundraisng event in Lakewood, New Jersey. Photograph: Charles Dharapak/AP

Updated at 10.53pm BST

10.16pm BST

And we were wondering when former World Bank head Robert Zoellick would pop up inside the Romney campaign? Well here he is – head of national security transition planning, possibly a proxy for secretary of state – and some people aren't happy:

The chief complaint among critics is that Zoellick, who served as deputy secretary of state under Bush before being appointed to head the World Bank, is a foreign-policy realist who has seemed too friendly toward China and, as a disciple of former Secretary of State James Baker, not friendly enough toward Israel. Romney's vows to be tougher on China and closer to the Israeli government are key pillars of his foreign-policy platform.

I'd assumed Zoellick would be Treasury-bound but Mitt obviously needs the foreign policy background he brings.

Romney consistently attempts to make up with tactics what he lacks in vision. Romney’s campaign isn’t driven by any core ideology or governing philosophy, but by responding to news cycles. It is a campaign that was perhaps best summed up by senior advisor Eric Fehrnstrom, when he proudly tweeted yesterday, “On Fox just now Romney was asked to respond to ‘RomneyHood’ charge and called it ‘Obamaloney.’” Conservatives, rest assured – Romney will not allow himself to be called a childish nickname without responding by calling Obama a childish nickname.

Hitting speeds of up to 90 mph at times, the motorcade made what had been scheduled as a 61-minute drive in roughly 45 minutes on a route that took us along the New Jersey Turnpike to the Garden State Parkway and prompted your pooler to wonder many times if she would live to cover Romney's remarks at the fundraiser tonight.

Later:

Then, as we turned into Lake Terrace, the motorcade drove past an Orthodox Jewish wedding party that had been posing for pictures outside. Immediately, the family abandoned the bride and groom and began chasing Romney's car in the parking lot, waving cameras. The candidate's SUV drove around a corner to a back entrance, followed by at least 10 members of the wedding party who tried to run up to Romney's car but were halted first, by a wood fence, which one man tried to scale, and then by Secret Service agents, who did not look pleased.

Bill Burton, Priorities USA Action's senior strategist, told the Huffington Post that the ad, released Tuesday, has been "wildly successful" in sparking a conversation around the long-term impact Romney has had on middle-class communities across America.

In 2010, Akin was one of only 13 to vote No on a motion “expressing the support of the House of Representatives for the goals and ideals of the National School Lunch Program.” 155 Republicans voted for it.

Yesterday an Obama-supporting Super Pac – Priorities USA Action – unveiled a savage ad that featured a steelworker from Indiana laid off from a factory owned by Mitt Romney's Bain Capital, claiming that his family lost health insurance after he was laid off and mentioning his wife's later death from cancer.

The Romney campaign and others said the ad was despicable, in effect unfairly accusing Romney of having killed the woman.

But in defending her boss, Romney campaign spokesman Andrea Saul set off alarm bells within the Republican party with this remark on Fox News this morning:

To that point, if people had been in Massachusetts, under Governor Romney’s healthcare plan, they would have had healthcare. There are a lot of people losing their jobs and losing their healthcare in President [Barack] Obama’s economy.

Why the outrage? Because the GOP remains bitterly opposed to Obama's healthcare reforms and remain uncomfortable with the fact of Mitt Romney's "Romneycare" and its resemblance to "Obamacare" – or "Obamneycare" as Tim Pawlenty once dubbed it. But here was a Romney campaign spokesperson making the case for Obamacare.

Conservatives have put aside their distrust of Romney on this issue in the name of beating Barack Obama. They thought he and his campaign team had gotten the message and the hints. Consider the scab picked, the wound opened, and the distrust trickling out again.

8.34pm BST

Another new presidential poll from Wisconsin, this time from Marquette – and it largely agrees with Quinnipiac's earlier poll this morning:

In the presidential race, President Barack Obama leads former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, 50 percent to 45 percent. In July, Obama had 51 percent to Romney’s 43 percent. The presidential race has remained stable since late May when Obama also led 51-43.

Mr Obama is a voracious consumer of news, reading newspapers and magazines on his iPad and in print and dipping into blogs and Twitter. He regularly gives aides detailed descriptions of articles that he liked, and he can be thin-skinned about those that he does not.

He typically begins his day upstairs in the White House reading the major newspapers, including his hometown Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times, mostly on his iPad through apps rather than their Web sites. He also skims articles that aides e-mail to him, with the subject line stating the publication and the headline (like “WSJ: Moody’s Downgrades Banks”).

During the day, Mr Obama reads newspapers on his iPad and print copies of magazines like the Economist and The New Yorker. On most Air Force One flights, he catches up on the news on his iPad.

The other interesting line: "He almost never watches television news."

Akin is one of the seven leading sponsors of anti-gay legislation in Congress, which perhaps follows from his belief that “anybody who knows something about the history of the human race knows that there is no civilization which has condoned homosexual marriage widely and openly that has long survived.” Akin has focused on gay members of the military, pushing legislation that would protect soldiers who chose to harass and bully their LGBT colleagues.

With the party nominating conventions just a few weeks away, the race for president remains in about the same place it has been all summer, according to three new battleground state polls. President Barack Obama holds a slight overall advantage over presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, but partisans generally tilt heavily to their party's candidate and independents are split almost evenly.

Now, we all know that but the point remains: despite wishful thinking and some lazy analysis, this election will be a close one. Dismiss Mitt Romney's chances at your peril.

Four years ago, Mr Obama won the support of white voters in Colorado by a slim, two-point margin, although he lost to John McCain among those with no college degree. Mr Obama won the support of Colorado's white college graduates by a 14-point margin.

Now, however, white voters in the state back Romney, 54 percent to 41 percent. Romney even wins the support of white college graduates, with 49 percent support to Mr Obama's 46 percent. The three-point lead is within the poll's margin of error.

There are age and gender gaps: men favor Romney over Mr Obama by 17 points, while women favor the president by 8 points. Independents are divided. A majority of voters under 35 support Mr Obama, while Romney leads among those age 36 and over.

3.43pm BST

A fresh set of polls from crucial swing states shows little to separate Mitt Romney and Barack Obama – reinforcing the likelihood that November's presidential election is far from being a done deal for either candidate.

According to a series of polls by Quinnipiac University, CBS News and the New York Times, Romney has a slight lead in Colorado – often thought to be a safe bet for Obama – while Obama himself has an edge in Virginia and Wisconsin, although without a clear enough margin to treat either as a safe bet.

Elsewhere, a series of primaries in Michigan, Missouri, Washington state and Kansas saw conservative Republicans continue their success within the GOP.

The most remarkable result was the victory in Missouri's Republican primary by Todd Akin, a social conservative endorsed by the likes of Michele Bachmann for the US Senate seat. Aiken won a tough three-way battle for the right to take on Democratic incumbent Claire Macaskill, regarded as highly vulnerable, but Democrats hope that Aiken's strident ideology will hurt him among independent voters.